R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

Hoshiarpur
PROTESTS: Activists of various political parties under the banner of the joint front staged a series of protest dharnas and rallies in front of the office of the Municipal Council here to express their resentment against the municipal authorities for their failure to provide basic civic amenities, especially safe drinking water, to the inhabitants of Hoshiarpur. This chain of protests was started on June 26 which concluded on Friday.

MURDER ATTEMPT: A case of attempt to murder of a husband by throwing boiled mustard oil on him by his first wife while he was sleeping at Khunda village was reported to Hazipur police station in this district on Thursday. According to police sources, Jaspal Singh, a resident of Khunda, stated in his complaint that he was married with Asha Rani in 1996. She remained issue-less even after eight years of marriage. Later with her consent, he married Parmala Devi. But Asha Rani was not happy with this marriage.

One held: Vigilance sleuths here yesterday caught red-handed Gurbachan Singh, Senior Assistant of Tehsil Welfare Office Hoshiarpur, while the latter was accepting Rs 500 as illegal gratification from Sat Pal Singh of Makha at the Tehsil Welfare Office Mukerian. According to official sources, in addition to his duty Gurbachan Singh was also doing temporary duty at Tehsil Welfare Office Mukerian. He demanded Rs 500 from Sat Pal for handing over the grant cheque of Rs 6100 issued by the state government for the development of his village.

HARYANA

Fatehabad
SURPRISE VISITS: The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mr Sushil Kumar Garg, on Friday paid a surprise visits to four anganwadi centres in different villages of the district and checked the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) there. The Programme Officer, ICDS, Ms Asha Setia, accompanied the judge. The Chief Judicial Magistrate visited two centres each at Bhodia Khera village and Bhattu Kalan and checked the records. He checked the stock of nutritious material supplied to the centre enquired from villagers whether they were getting benefits of the scheme.

Panipat
ELECTROCUTED: Ram Niwas of Buana Lakhu village was reportedly electrocuted here on Thursday when he had gone to switch on tubewell in his fields. The body was taken to Bhim Sen Sachar Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination.

Rewari
ELECTROCUTED: A 12-year-old boy, Pappu, a son of Prakash Chand, was electrocuted when he touched a live wire while starting an electric motor to run a water pump in his house at Manethi village, about 30 km from here, on Wednesday evening. The boy was all alone in the house at that time.

GYPSUM SUPPLY: The Haryana Government has decided to supply gypsum at highly subsidised rates to farmers to enable them to increase productivity of their lands. A 50-kg bag of gypsum, which costs Rs 60 at present, will now be supplied to the farmers for Rs 30 only through the sale centres as well as other authorised dealers of the Haryana Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (HLRDC). The government has made an allocation of Rs 2 crore by way of subsidy for this purpose, according to Deputy Commissioner Mahender Kumar.

Sonepat
PHONE LINK: The telephone link between Ganaur, a subdivisional town and the headquarters of Sonepat district, continued to remain cut off for the second day on Friday following the cutting of optical fibre cable in the telephone exchange at Ganaur. Thousands of telephones remained dead on account of this fault, causing great inconvenience to the subscribers of Ganaur and the villages of Datauli, Panchi Jatan, Khubru and Purkhas.

SUICIDE: A girl reportedly committed suicide by taking celphos tablets in her house at Bad Khalsa village, about 15 km from here, on Friday. The Rai police has sent the body for a post-mortem examination. The cause of the suicide was not immediately known.

FIRE INCIDENT: Fire broke out in a factory on the Sonepat-Bahalgarh road, near here, on Friday causing some loss to the goods kept there.